


Rooms Like These

by m_class



Series: 007 Fest 2019 Angst Prompt Table [4]
Category: James Bond (Classic movies)
Genre: Angst Prompt Table 2019 - Torture, Blood, Bodily Fluids, Carrying, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Rescue Missions, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 16:48:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20067313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_class/pseuds/m_class
Summary: James finds Eve in the kind of room he's seen too many times before.





	Rooms Like These

**Author's Note:**

> Each prompt fic can be read as a stand-alone or as part of the series in order.

He’s been in rooms like these before. He’s been in rooms like these, rooms that smelled of blood and bodily fluids. Some of them have been dark and windowless, with walls that oozed with underground mold. Others have been brightly lit and clean, at least to start with, with drains set into the floor. Professional. 

Just like him.

He’s been in rooms like this before. 

But it hasn’t been like this. It’s never been like this.  


Eve is tied to a chair in the center of the windowless room, slumped forward with her head lolling. He is as her side in instants, as though time has warped and the universe has shifted to carry him to her side in no more than a single step.

“Eve.” 

She moves minutely, the rhythm of her ragged breathing shifting slightly at the sound of his voice. 

“Eve, it’s James. I’m here. I’m right here.”

Crossing behind her, he carefully cuts the cable ties that hold her wrists together behind the back of the chair, gripping her by the shoulder, as gently as he can, to keep her from falling forward to the floor as he does so. She slumps against him, semiconscious, as he kneels by her side to free her feet. 

“We’re getting you out of here, Agent,” he says. There are guidelines for communicating with agents in psychological distress. Call them by their rank; remind them of who they are. Or is that only when you need them to focus enough to do something? He doesn’t need Eve to do anything except stay alive.

Carefully, he gathers her into his arms, wishing they had a stretcher so as to jostle her less. Her face is bruised and bloody, but her lips move slightly, and he watches carefully, feeling his stomach clench as he sees, more than hears, the sound of the word.

“Eve,” he breathes, quiet but firm, as he carries her out into the corridor and begins to make his way down it, covered by the agent who fought her way in with him. “You don’t have to be sorry. Listen to me, right? You don’t have to be sorry. Things like this have happened to me; things like this have happened to other agents. Good people, brave people.” Christ, normally he wouldn’t talk so damn much on a mission, but if Eve doesn’t make it back to base, he can’t stand the thought of her dying ashamed. “You’re strong. You're brave. Just hang on a little longer, all right?”

During the pause while the other agent--not a double-oh, but clearly capable enough--checks around the next corner, James gazes down at Eve. Her lips move again, her swollen eyes trying to open, trying to see him, and he can see the shape of her question.

_ James? _

“It’s me, Eve. It’s me. I’m here. I’m right here, and we’re gonna get you home. Just a little further now. We’re gonna get you home.”

Then they’re moving again, quickly, across more open space, and he can’t talk to her besides a muttered “Hang on, Agent,” every few seconds, terrified each time he looks down that she will have slipped away.

But when they make it back to cover, she’s still shivering weakly in his arms, and when he tells her " Almost there, Eve," she shifts, just slightly, to tuck herself closer against his chest. 

A smile of relief and painful affection rises to his lips despite himself. “You’re going good, Eve. You’re doing good. Just hang on.”


End file.
